RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

A Concern About Reince Preibus

UPDATE on Priebus: I had earlier noted the Anderson brothers backing Priebus. Apparently this info was conflated from the Anderson brothers doing work in Wisconsin for the state party. They are not, however, backing Priebus————I have a concern about Reince Preibus and it has nothing to do with whether or not he or his law firm helped communities get stimulus money.Back in January of 2009, I raised the concern that Michael Steele was using Blaise Hazelwood to run his campaign for the RNC. The concern related to the willingness and ability of the Republican consultant class to glum on to their preferred RNC Chairman and bilk the GOP of gobs of cash.At the time, Michael Steele, seeking to address the concerns I raised, sent out an email saying, “No member of the RNC staff will benefit financially from the RNC beyond their salary. The RNC will utilize a RFP process that mirrors best practices among national non-profit organizations. Contracts will be awarded strictly on merit.”In fact, after Michael Steele won, Hazelwood, the Andersons, and others — all good people mind you — did in fact continue getting grand sums from the RNC. The RNC paid Hazelwood $761,000 for grassroots targeting, $48,000 for web advertising, and her husband received over $2 million. See here, here, and here.Well, this year it turns out that the same cadre of consultants who backed Michael Steele in 2009 are backing Reince Preibus. I’m told that these same consultants were consultants for the Wisconsin GOP in the 2010 campaign cycle.There is speculation among the parlors of Republicans interested in these games that Preibus is a moderate proxy for Steele to divide up conservatives — much like what happened in 2009.I don’t think that is necessarily the case. But I do think it is a very troubling sign that the same consultants who pushed Michael Steele in 2009 and then went on to make large sums from the RNC are pushing Reince Preibus in 2011.